The town lies on the railway line from Beira to Bulawayo, near the Cabeça do Velho rock and the Chimanimani National Park (see Wikivoyage:Chimoio).

The city of Chimoio, capital of Manica Province, lies on the Beira Corridor at an altitude of 750 metres, linking the coast and the interior of the continent.

Paramount Chief Ganda then requested permission for his son to be buried in Chaurumba's land and for one of his relatives to settle close to the grave in order to tend and watch over it.

[citation needed] The Portuguese, already well established in the coastal areas of East Africa since the 15th century, also ventured into these interior lands seeking the famous Mwenemutapa Empire and gradually settled there as colonists.

[citation needed] In 1899 the Mozambique Company decided to transfer its District Headquarters from Vila Barreto to a settlement named Chimiala, which came to be called Mandigos.

Colonization of Manica received its main impetus in 1910 with the arrival of Portuguese Governor João Pery de Lind who set up a number of procedures to further the development of Chimoio.

A few kilometres from the centre of the current city of Chimoio lies the neighbourhood of Soalpo, which bears witness to the agro-industrial development that made the Province of Manica one of the main targets for agriculture investment in the Portuguese colony.

This “town close to the city of Chimoio” was built by SOALPO (Sociedade Algodoeira de Portugal, or Portuguese Cotton Company), in 1944.

[citation needed] Vila Pery was raised to the status of city by the Governor-General of Portugal's Overseas Province of Mozambique, Baltazar Rebelo de Sousa, on 17 July 1969, in recognition of the success of its economic and social activities.

[citation needed] The Montalto Cinema, built in 1969 and abandoned after independence, was so-named because the “monte alto” or high mountain of Mozambique (Mount Binga) is on the Manica plateau.

Cotton harvesting, silviculture, fruit production (including citrus), and textiles, food and wood industries were the main employers along with services and administration.

[3] The change in name from Vila Pery to Chimoio took place on 12 June 1975, during the public rally of the first President of independent Mozambique - Samora Moisés Machel - on his journey from the Rovuma to the Maputo.

[citation needed] A trip to Chimoio city always takes place under the curious gaze of a rocky outcrop with a unique aspect.